April 11, 2010

Super 2 to bite the dust?

… If a team parks a player in the minor leagues for at least 20 days to begin the season, it can delay his free agency by one year. Teams looking to save money go a step further and keep players down for about two months, which prevents them from gaining the Super 2 status that gives the top 17 percent of any service class an extra year of salary arbitration…. It’s the rare issue unsatisfactory to both players and management. For nearly every team, the rules make it fiscally irresponsible not to bury roster-worthy players. And it’s something both MLB labor relations head Rob Manfred and players’ association executive director Michael Weiner hope to change, if not eliminate, after the current CBA expires in December 2011.

… In all likelihood, the Super 2 will be negotiated into the ether. Whether something similar replaces it – like making the cutoff day two years, 90 days to force teams that want to engage in service-time chicanery to lose players for more than three months – or they scrap it and emerge with something new, it needs fixing.